Martinis and Blackjack
by Bexish
Summary: Two months after Rory's underwhelming 21st birthday, the Gilmore girls hit up Atlantic City to do Rory's 21st up right.
1. Martinis and Blackjack

"Mom, it's 11:55." The casino didn't have any clocks, but Rory was wearing a watch. Timing was everything right now.

"But I'm doing so well! Look, I got two cherries this time instead of just one."

"Which is the equivalent of you losing another dollar to that machine. It has more money than you do right now."

"It's not fair. Everything's rigged here." Stupid slot machines. They just ate her money and didn't give her anything in return. And Rory wouldn't even let her try the roulette wheel.

"It's 11:56 and there are already people at our blackjack table."

"Oh my god, you so need to be 21 already. You are far too punctual when you're sober." Lorelai reached into her pocket to pull out another token for the machine but stopped when she saw Rory glaring at her. "Okay, okay. Let's blackjack."

As they walked across the casino, Lorelai took a long look at her daughter. In two minutes time she was going to be 21. Technically she wasn't actually 21 until 4:03 the next morning, but the casino didn't care about getting that specific. And it helped that Rory was already technically 21. But they were doing it up right. No drinking until midnight. After months of alternately not talking and fighting she could hardly believe they were going through with their plan, but here they were in Atlantic City. And only two months late.

"Mom, watch out," Rory said, pulling her away from the cocktail waitress she was about to crash in. "You're not drunk already, are you? Because we've got a long night ahead of us and I don't want to do everything alone."

"I'm not drunk." Rude. Accusing her of being drunk when she'd only had two margaritas. Maybe three margaritas. But she wasn't drunk. "But soon I will be. And so will you, my darling daughter! Almost 21. I can't believe it."

"My, how time has flown."

"Amen, sister. Hey, do you think we should've learned to play blackjack before we got here? Because we're going to need a lot of money to buy 21 things. And I don't want to lose."

"You just say 'hit me' until it seems like time to stop, right?" Rory didn't know how to play blackjack, but it wasn't really a surprise since Lorelai had never taught her. She wasn't exactly a card shark. Which was probably evident by the fact the fact that she would actually use the term card shark.

Lorelai considered this. "Absolutely," she said, smoothing out her skirt before sitting down at the table. She had bought matching (p)leather miniskirts for her and Rory, but Rory had not-so-politely declined to wear hers. Something about not wanting to be mistaken as "for sale". But Lorelai was wearing hers, along with her pink rhinestone-covered heels that Rory had tried to make her sell in the annual rummage sale for the past five years. Rory was wearing black pumps that didn't have rhinestones or a million straps. So refined and practical. Completely wrong for such an occasion. But that was Rory.

"Excuse me, can we get two martinis over here, please?"

"Hey! You are not 21 yet, missy," Lorelai said. "You're not allowed to order drinks." The waitress looked at Rory quizzically.

"Technically –"

"Technicalities are not allowed tonight. Hi, I'm her mother. I'm 21, so you can give me the martinis, right?"

"If she's not 21 then I can't legally serve her."

"She'll be 21 in like two minutes! And time is of the essence here because we have to be drinking them the second she turns 21. She has ID! Rory, show this nice young woman your ID so we can get our martinis." Rory had already dug her ID out of her bag, anticipating something like this. She was bound to be carded anyway, whether or not she was technically 21 already.

"This says you've been 21 for two months," the waitress said, looking it over.

"Yeah, I know. But we're doing it over." If the waitress thought it was weird she didn't say anything. She just handed the ID back and went to get the martinis.

"Hey, we should've ordered a Rory! Just like at your birthday party. Those were great."

"Mom, you still complain that you can feel the sugar in your mouth from the half of one you drank two months ago. We are never going to make one of those. And they probably wouldn't make one for us."

"Who mixes champagne and vodka? That's such a terrible idea."

"And the grenadine didn't help at all. That was a really bad drink."

"That was a really bad party. No offense."

"How could it be a good party? I only talked to you once." That whole party had been a disaster from start to finish. Rory had been so worried Lorelai wouldn't want to come and then when she did show up it was just awkward. The necklace Luke gave her was really pretty, though. And the chocolate boxes were good. Emily had great taste in chocolate.

"No, no. Let us never speak of that party again. It is behind us and now, dear daughter, it is your REAL 21st birthday. A rite of passage, if you will. And we are going to drink our martinis and be merry and then buy a lot of things we might regret once we get home."

"Hear, hear," Rory said, taking a martini from the waitress.

Lorelai tapped her glass against Rory's and looked at her expectantly. "Well? Is it time yet?"

Rory looked at her watch. "Close. Fifteen seconds."

"What? I can't wait that long! It has to be midnight now!"

"Excuse me, miss? Are you two actually going to play?" The blackjack dealer obviously didn't understand the ceremony behind this. He just looked impatient. As did the rest of the people at the table. Jeez, you would think they actually wanted to play blackjack or something.

"Can you give us 10 seconds?"

"It's five now."

"Four…"

"Three."

"Two!"

"Can you stand the pressure?"

"Quiet, little girl. That's midnight! Go!"

The big hand on Rory's watch finally hit the 12 and while it wasn't as exciting as an alarm (which Lorelai had been a big fan of), it was enough. Rory was officially 21 (again) and the Gilmore girls were back together again. Everything was perfect.

"If you're not going to play, ladies, please leave the table so other people can play."

Almost perfect.


	2. 21 Things

"Shots!"

"You're drunk. We don't need shots." Rory wasn't doing too well on the sobriety thing herself, but she wasn't quite as drunk as Lorelai. Rory may have felt like she'd downed about a quart of Miss Patty's Founders' Punch but Lorelai had a two hour head start. "And we have to go buy our 21 things. And the numbers."

"What numbers?"

"The numbers of the guys! 21."

"21 numbers or 21 guys?" They had been planning this forever but now she couldn't remember. Maybe they shouldn't even get guys' numbers anyway, since she was with Luke now. And Rory was with Logan. They were both very much unsingle.

"21 guys! 21 numbers. That doesn't even make sense."

"There are seven numbers in a phone number. That's three phone numbers."

"Area codes!"

Lorelai scoffed. "Who cares about area codes? Let's get 21 numbers. It's faster."

"What, you don't think we could get the numbers of 21 different guys? I think we could. It's a challenge, but I'm 21 now. I think we're up to it." Rory was feeling very emboldened. She was 21 now. She could do whatever she wanted. And she'd had like three martinis. Those were good. Better than the punch. She had bad memories associated with the punch. The martinis were great though.

"If we find 21 guys on the way to the 21 things store then that's a bonus. But I am not going to look for 21 different guys in these heels." Lorelai pushed open the door of the casino and half lead, half dragged Rory out of the casino. "Smell that? That is fresh sea air."

"It's so nice. Let's move to the beach. The beach is so nice."

"We need a lot of brooms though. It's sandy. We're going to get sand everywhere."

"Sand is kind of nice though. It'll add good texture." Rory pointed to a lighted shop down the board walk. "That's it. That's our 21 things store."

Lorelai squinted. "That place looks nice. It's so close though. There aren't 21 guys between here and there."

Rory shrugged. "It's okay. I can't really walk in these shoes so closer is better."

"Just take them off. The sand will feel good on your feet."

"We're on the boardwalk. There's no sand on the boardwalk."

"There's a little sand," Lorelai said, grabbing onto Rory's arm as her heel caught in a crack in the wood and she pitched forward. "See? Sand. It's slippery."

"You're drunk."

"I'm not drunk! I'm rich though, look," Lorelai said, pulling a handful of bills out of her pocket. "We have so much money. We can buy whatever we want."

"You won $20 in the two hours you were at the slot machines. We don't even have enough money to pay for 21 things."

"Just look for things that are two for a dollar," Lorelai advised, walking into the shot. It was all kitschy souvenir stuff. Right up their alley. "Do we need Atlantic City shot glasses?" She held up the tiny glass, emblazoned with the logo of the casino they were just at.

"Get two," Rory said. "Roulette wheel keychain?"

"Put it in the basket. Sunglasses?"

"I can always use a new pair of sunglasses. Magnet?"

"And Pixy Stix!" Lorelai tossed a package in the bag. "I found the candy aisle. "Look, they have those Hershey bars with the weird little holes in them that taste like eating a cloud."

"Oh yeah, we need those. Wait, should we get 21 things we can have forever or does candy count?"

"Candy always counts," Lorelai said, grabbing a giant sucker with Atlantic City written on it in frosting. "Look, they have light up pacifier necklaces!"


	3. Hangover Food

"Head hurts. It's too light in here."

"That's because it's two in the afternoon," Rory said, looking at the alarm clock next to her bed in their hotel room. "The sun's been up for a long time."

"I know; we were still up when the sun started to come up, remember?" It had been a long night. And they had three bags of cheap crap, empty wallets and painful hangovers to remind them.

Rory groaned. "I need a burrito."

"Burritos are good," Lorelai agreed. "Room service burritos."

"We don't have any money anymore," Rory pointed out. "We spent it all on our 21 things."

"There's always money for burritos."

"Not ten dollar room service burritos."

"So what are our options?" Lorelai asked, propping herself up on her elbows. She felt sticky. Like she had taken a shower in Kool-Aid.

"I think we go home." It had been a great birthday, but one night in Atlantic City was enough for Rory. "And maybe get some Taco Bell on the way."

"Home is good," Lorelai said. "When we get back do you think Luke will make us special hangover pancakes?"

"Only if you don't show him that list of guys' numbers."


End file.
